Arizona’s charter schools are about to receive a fresh infusion of taxpayer dollars in a federal grant from the United States Department of Education. The grant is expected to fund the establishment of two dozen new charter schools and bolster another 23 already in operation.
As reported by The Center Square, the state of Arizona has received approximately 24% of the $143 million awarded across the nation by the Expanding Opportunities Through Quality Charter Schools Program, a total of about $34.8 million. The outlet noted that although the funding originates from fiscal 2024 it will be distributed in annual disbursements through 2029.
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) December 4, 2024
In a press release from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said, “I am extremely pleased that we have received this federal grant that will create 24 new high-quality charter schools and help another 23 existing schools with models and practices that result in academic growth. I want to commend the department staff who competed for this funding. Their work has resulted in the state receiving the largest recipient of this grant, per capita, in the country.”
Horne added, “Arizona is the leader in the country on school choice and charters are a major component of that. These dollars will serve a vital purpose in making sure that an estimated 10,000 students in traditionally underserved areas will have a chance to select a high-quality charter school. Every student in every part of our state, urban or rural, rich or poor, deserves this opportunity and I am very pleased to be a part of this effort.”
Speaking with AZ Capitol Times, Horne explained Arizona’s long-term history of fostering charter schools saying, “The charter schools in Arizona go back to the 1990s.” Then, he noted that as a state legislator, he championed charter schools and their purpose. “Even a good district school may not necessarily meet the needs of all the students,” Horne told the outlet. “And so the parents should have the ability to find a school that does meet those needs.”
In the release, ADE stated that it has already begun work on the upcoming project “which aims to increase the number of high-quality charter schools focusing on educationally disadvantaged students.” It added that such students are identified by their economic disadvantage, disability status, as non-English speakers, and as “other demographic groups.”
The statement outlined the grant’s purpose stating:
“The grant also seeks to close achievement gaps in academic scores, provide technical assistance to educators to improve teaching and learning and encourage dual or concurrent enrollment in college level courses. The expectation is that students will experience at least one year of academic growth on state tests for math, reading and language arts with a long-term measurement of cumulative three-year growth.”
At present, approximately 560 charter schools are in operation throughout Arizona serving about 231,000 students. The Center Square report cited the Arizona Charter Schools Association. Under Arizona law, all charter schools are open enrollment and as a result enjoy wide adoption. The outlet reported that the California Department of Education, Colorado League of Charter Schools, New York State Education Department, Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, and Rhode Island Department of Education also received 2024 grant funding as well.
America’s friends of limited government have had a rough go lately. Government bureaucrats and spenders of all stripes have been living it up.
Since 2001, the last time the federal budget was balanced, federal revenues have shown healthy growth of 3.9% annually, while inflation averaged only 2.5%. These figures would normally signify a sound, sustainable economy. But spending has grown at a rate of 5.5%, so instead we have a destabilizing gross federal debt of $36 trillion.
The response of the Biden/Harris administration to this looming catastrophe was to double down on spending. In an era of relative peace and prosperity, they kept mindlessly passing out money to win political points.
The hope now is that the Trump/Vance administration can reverse this madness. If so, the Department of Education (DOE) would be a good place to start. It is a prototype bureaucracy that has grown and prospered despite a complete lack of mission success.
The DOE was created in the 70s, ostensibly to improve the chronically ailing achievement scores in government schools. But in spite of the hundreds of billions spent, it has totally failed. Instead, it has provided steady employment for thousands of education bureaucrats who administer federal grants and programs, and write jargon-laden academic papers, yet have made no discernible difference in the quality of American education.
Remember Goals 2000, Every Student Succeeds, or No Child Left Behind? What about the Office of Safe and Healthy Students, the Education Facilities Clearinghouse, or offices dedicated to American-Asians, Native Hawaiians, American Indians, Hispanics, African-Americans, and other hyphenated groups singled out for special treatment? Of course you don’t, unless you are one of the lucky recipients of their largess.
But DOE has been worse than useless. It provides a platform for the teachers’ unions, by far the most influential protector of the status quo and obstruction to school choice. The damaging COVID shutdown was the latest blow to union-run public schools delivered by the DOE/unions dynamic duo.
Most private schools and charters, with access to the same medical information, kept their schools mostly open. Their students didn’t suffer the crippling learning loss that the unfortunate wards of the DOE did.
Ronald Reagan was the first of many leaders to advocate for the DOE’s elimination. But like bureaucracies everywhere, DOE is dedicated above all else to its own preservation, which is the one goal in which it has succeeded. It won’t be easy, but returning education policy to the states would be a great service to future generations of students.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a similar failed history. When it was created in 1964, the U.S. homeownership rate was 64%. After six decades of HUD stewardship, the homeownership rate is still 64%.
It’s not like they haven’t tried. HUD’s mortgage companies – Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae manage multiple housing programs with federal finance agencies, all with the goal of controlling costs and boosting home ownership.
Yet under HUD’s “leadership,” home prices have far outstripped inflation. When HUD was created in 1967, the average home price was $22,000, about three times the average family income. Today the average home costs $500,000, seven times income. Meanwhile, European households without a comparable bureaucracy average 69% home ownership.
HUD has spent about $4 trillion since its inception with little to show for it. The housing market would function at least as well if the government simply got out of the way.
As these and other bureaucracies have grown and prospered, we have developed a very centralized form of government. In the land of the free, we have grown comfortable sending our tax money to Washington for faceless bureaucrats to return to us, always with strings attached.
We get the healthcare, the education, the roads and other goodies that government decrees. Government buys or subsidizes everything from unpopular electric cars and trains, state and local government public safety departments, “climate initiatives,” and much more.
Reforming an entrenched bureaucracy, much less eliminating it, is extraordinarily difficult. Yet the present could be a rare opportunity to repair this destruction to our way of life. We must be fearless and strategic in reducing government excess and providing a successful economic future for our descendants.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
The federal government unlawfully denied Grand Canyon University (GCU) its nonprofit status, per a new federal court ruling.
Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Grand Canyon University v. Miguel Cardona that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) was wrong to refuse the Christian university their nonprofit status.
Circuit Judge Daniel Collins reversed the summary judgment by District Court Judge Susan Bolton favoring ED. Collins remanded GCU’s nonprofit status back to ED for review.
ED had determined that GCU’s organizing documents satisfied the IRS organizational test’s requirements; however, ED denied GCU when it came to the operational test. ED determined that GCU’s primary activities and its stream of revenue both didn’t benefit the university. Collins disagreed.
Collins ruled that ED had invoked the wrong legal standards, going beyond the Higher Education Act (HEA) requirements to impose exceeding IRS regulations. Rather, Collins ruled that HEA standards only require ED to determine whether GCU was owned and operated by a nonprofit corporation and whether GCU satisfied the no-inurement requirement.
“The Department invoked the wrong legal standards by relying on IRS regulations that impose requirements that go well beyond the HEA’s requirements and instead implement a portion of § 501(c)(3) that has no counterpart in the definition of the term ‘nonprofit’ set forth in HEA § 103(13),” ruled Collins.
The inurement requirement allows nonprofits to buy from for-profit companies at fair market value.
GCU has been battling with ED over its nonprofit status since 2019, when ED denied the IRS status granted to GCU. GCU had historically been a nonprofit school, save a stint in the early 2000s when the university went for-profit to avoid bankruptcy.
After GCU sued ED in 2021 over the denial, ED launched a coordinated investigation with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Veterans Affairs for unfair or deceptive practices.
Last year, ED levied a $38 million fine against GCU.
GCU maintained that ED targeted them over their ideological differences, since they are a Christian university.
Bob Romantic, GCU executive director of the office of communications and public relations, said in a press release that the nonprofit status would allow GCU to thrive more than it has been able to under a for-profit status.
“While the university remains exceedingly proud of what it achieved during its short stint as a for-profit institution, building up GCU from the brink of bankruptcy into the largest Christian university in the country, nonprofit status best allows the university to accomplish its goals around research, grant writing, development, being full members of the NCAA, etc.,” said Romantic. “Today’s decision is a long-awaited correction to the Department’s unlawful application of a standard that improperly denied GCU of its nonprofit status, and we are hopeful for a quick affirmation of the university as a nonprofit institution.”
President-elect Donald Trump pledged to dismantle ED “very early” in his administration in a campaign video last year, citing America’s high spending and poor student outcomes compared to other nations.
“[We’re] sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse,” said Trump. “We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C., we’re going to close it up, all those buildings all over the place, and yeah people that, in many cases, hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the states.”
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Arizona has approximately $29 million in unused federal funds for schools, which Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Superintendent Tom Horne seeks to recover.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) notified Horne of the unused millions last week. The $29 million in Title I funds were underutilized during the administration of Horne’s predecessor, Kathy Hoffman. This was reportedly the first notification of its kind submitted by ED to the state under Horne’s administration.
In a press release on Monday, Horne blamed the underutilization on incompetence.
“The under-utilization of about $29 million in federal funds began in Federal Fiscal Year 2020, but continued under the previous superintendent and the employee who incompetently handed these allocations no longer works at this department,” said Horne.
Horne rejected allegations by Governor Katie Hobbs that he was at fault for the mismanagement of these millions, which fell under his predecessor’s control.
“These dollars should have been sent to districts and charters years ago during the Hoffman administration, but they were allowed by previous staff to accumulate and potentially revert,” said Horne. “In reality she is asking to investigate Kathy Hoffman’s administration, but the problem is being corrected by my administration.”
Horne had clarified in a press release last week, responding to reporting by The Arizona Republic, that it was specifically one employee within Hoffman’s administration that was to blame. Horne claimed that the individual gave incorrect allocation totals to schools. Horne didn’t name that employee.
“The mishandling and failure to notify districts of correct allocations with time for them to properly plan and spend the money resulted from an error by an employee of my predecessor before I took office,” said Horne. “This person told the schools they had smaller allocations than they had. We were constantly on the phone urging districts to spend as much of the money properly as they could.”
The superintendent noted that the Arizona Republic was aware that oversight of the funds fell under Hoffman, but that they had “dishonestly withheld” that information from their reporting. Horne also demanded a retraction of their “false” reporting.
“The story is false, and the reporter responsible for writing it dishonestly and, apparently with intent, withheld information given to him in advance of the story that clearly shows the story is false,” said Horne. “This is unacceptable and cannot stand.”
KJZZ identified the former staffer as a current employee of the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office.
One member of that office, Peter Laing, their CFO, served as Hoffman’s policy advisor and oversaw the various federal funding programs during the pandemic.
Hoffman, in turn, told the Arizona Republic that Horne was to blame for not recognizing the missteps of her administration upon taking over.
“It was their choice to bring in their own leadership, so those people needed to figure out all the grant funding. It’s as simple as that,” said Hoffman.
On Monday, in response to the contested Arizona Republic reporting, Hobbs and six Democratic state representatives demanded the convening of a Joint Legislative Audit Committee to audit Horne and ADE over the Title I funds.
In a press release, Hobbs said Horne was to blame for the disappearance of the majority of those millions, around $24 million, which the governor deemed as lost.
“It is unconscionable that Superintendent Horne has let tens of millions of dollars disappear from our schools—critical federal funding that helps students succeed,” said Hobbs. “Our kids deserve better.”
An accompanying letter from the six Democratic lawmakers — Nancy Gutierrez, Lupe Contreras, Oscar De Los Santos, Melody Hernandez, Jennifer Pawlik, and Judy Schwiebert — argued against ADE’s refusal, per department policy, to release its data and formulas determining reduced Title I allocations.
The lawmakers alleged that it was current ADE practices that withheld federal funding from schools.
“School finance officers across the state have tried and failed to recreate the reductions generated by the Department, leading to confusion and doubt regarding the accuracy of those calculations,” stated the lawmakers.
In order to recoup the $29 million, ADE must apply for a Tydings waiver allowing excess funds accrued due to underallocations beginning with the 2020 fiscal year. Approval of the waiver will increase funding to districts and charters, per ADE.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction is standing up for an in-state university in a battle against the federal government.
This week, Arizona’s school’s chief, Tom Horne, sent a letter to Secretary Miguel Cardona of the U.S. Department of Education, urging the agency head to “change [his] position on Grand Canyon University (GCU) and come to a satisfactory resolution.”
Earlier this month, Cardona said of his department’s efforts over GCU: “Going after predatory schools preying on first generation students. They have flashy marketing materials, but the product is not worth the paper it is printed on. Increased enforcement budget to go after these folks and crack down. Levied largest fine in history against a school that lied about costs and terminated a school from Title IX. We are cracking down not only to shut them down, but to send a message not to prey on schools.”
Horne reminded Cardona of a 2023 letter that he had transmitted, asking for his department to “sit down with Grand Canyon University and work out any differences.” He explained that GCU was “a major ally to my effort to raise academics in Arizona schools, and any harm you do to them would do harm to my goal of academic excellence.” The Superintendent added that there was a “severe teacher shortage in Arizona, and the elimination of GCU would be a severe blow.”
In his latest letter, Horne informed the high-ranking cabinet member that “GCU reports that they have asked your department for evidence of intent and verified student complaints regarding the accusation your department is making, and you have refused to provide that information.”
As he wrapped up his letter, Horne wrote, “in the U.S., anyone accused of wrongdoing is presumed innocent and entitled to their day in court. For a Cabinet-level official, one who is sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, your threat against GCU is contrary to those constitutional guarantees and unworthy of your position. It is unwarranted, unjust and the latest episode of harassment against this school by the federal government.”
The state school’s chief concluded by asserting that Cardona had, so far, “chosen to be unreasonable” in his approach and actions against GCU.
In October 2023, the U.S. Department of Education fined GCU $37.7 million, accusing the university of lying “to more than 7,500 former and current students about the cost of its doctoral programs over several years.” Richard Cordray, the Chief Operating Officer of the Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, said, “Today, we are holding GCU accountable for its actions, protecting students and taxpayers, and upholding the integrity of the federal student aid programs.”
GCU responded to the recent comments by the U.S. Education Secretary, stating, “GCU has been asked repeatedly why it believes it is being targeted by federal agencies of the Biden Administration. Here’s what we can tell you: Mr. Cardona’s inflammatory comments make very clear the Department of Education’s intentions and their disdain for institutions that do not fit their ideological agenda. What’s also clear is that ED has no lawful grounds to carry out those intentions based on their disingenuous and factually unsupportable allegations.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
